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The Heroic Women of Early Indiana Methodism: An Address Delivered Before the Indiana Methodist Historical Society By: T. A. (Thomas Aiken) Goodwin (1818-1906) |
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OF EARLY INDIANA METHODISM.
AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE Indiana Methodist Historical Society AT DE PAUW UNIVERSITY, June 16, 1889,
BY REV. T. A. GOODWIN, D. D.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND.:
INDIANAPOLIS PRINTING COMPANY.
1889.
The Heroic Women of Early Indiana Methodism.
"Arms and the man , I sing," said the great Virgil, thousands of
years ago, and all the little Virgils have been singing the man ever
since. But who ever sings the woman? Occasionally a Debora or a Joan of
Arc, a kind of a female monstrosity, comes to the front and receives
recognition, but their conspicuousness is due more to the low level of
their surroundings, than to their individual pre eminence. They were out
of their spheres in what gave them notoriety, and they have been so
voted by universal consent through the ages. It was not specially to
their credit that they successfully commanded armies, but it was to the
unutterable shame of the men of their period that they had to, or let it
go undone. No thanks to Betsey for killing the bear. She had to, or the
bear would have killed the baby, but everlasting shame upon her
worthless husband for making it necessary for her to do what he ought to
have done. Betsey was out of her sphere when killing the bear, and so
was the cowardly man when letting her do it. The great Virgil graciously introduces a Dido into his song, but he does
it apologetically, and only because it was necessary in order to make a
love story out of it, and all the little Virgils all the writers of
love stories from that day to this have treated her in literature as if
she were indispensable to point a moral or to adorn a tale, and really
fit for little else that it was her mission to love and be loved, all
of which was easy enough on her part; and that, having filled this
mission, she ought to be happy and die contented, and to be held in
everlasting remembrance. This outrage upon woman's rights and woman's
worth has been carried so far that it has become common to assume that
it is her prerogative to monopolize the love of the household at least
to possess and manage the greater part of it; and some women have heard
this so often that they more than half believe it themselves, so that
from away back men, and even some women, talk of a woman's love as being
a little purer and a great deal stronger than a man's love. There is not
a word of truth in it. It is one of the unfounded legends which have
descended through the ages, transmitted from father to son, while the
mothers and daughters, all unconscious of the great wrong they suffer by
it, have never denied it. It is not only false, but it is absurd. How
could it be true? A man is not lovable as a woman is. How can she love
him as he loves her, who is the personification and incarnation of
beauty and gentleness and sweetness? That is, some are, for it must be
conceded that woman is like Jeremiah's figs, the good are very, very
good, while the bad are very naughty too bad for any use. This wrong against woman has gone even farther than that. In the battles
of life, however nobly she fights them, she receives no proper
recognition. The man who fights well is a hero, but the woman who fights
equally well, or even better, is only a hero ine . I despise the word
because I detest the discrimination it implies. We do not call the
devout Christian woman a saintess, nor the eloquent woman an oratrix,
but the woman who excels in endurance and bravery and in the virtues
that constitute a man a hero, is only a hero ine , as if heroism was a
manly virtue, to which woman may lay no claim. I long ago expunged it
from my vocabulary. It is entirely too femin ine for me. Out upon such
unjust discrimination! This long and rather prosy introduction brings me to the theme of the
evening woman the greater hero in early Indiana Methodism. You have often heard of the sacrifices and toils of the pioneer
preachers. Those sacrifices and toils were great, yet many of them were
of the character of those made by a young preacher in the Western
Conference about the beginning of this century... Continue reading book >>
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